To rise again after a crisis
Ask the management of Sulpicio Lines, Cebu Pacific, Ayala Corporation, Aboitiz Shipping or ABS-CBN — companies that have undergone challenges of crisis proportions — and for sure all of them will agree that being in a crisis situation is never a pleasurable experience. After the dust has settled, forward actions need to be undertaken to turn the danger brought about by the circumstance into an opportunity that can be a constructive learning experience. It goes beyond assessing a company’s legal woes and financial losses. What is critical is to immediately assess the opinions of key publics affected by the crisis, their perception of the company, and what they think or believe about it, after the expected bad media coverage it has been subjected to.
On an intermediate level, assessing the damage and instituting damage-control mechanisms are musts. The company must move quickly. Start with a survey among key audiences to gauge the public opinion damage. And even though the crisis has abated, the various publics, particularly the media, are now sensitized to the situation. They need to receive reassuring messages about the company, its programs and products, and the way the victims of the crisis are being taken care of. While the crisis response plan is being implemented, remember to keep a log. It can be an important tool, and can be converted into a report to show how the company successfully got out of the problem. You will discover later that the document can present the company’s decision-making and actions throughout the crisis, and how it demonstrated its accessibility and openness.
Crisis response planning is all about atonement, rising from the fall, and rebuilding from the broken blocks of the corporate reputation. But most crises come down to a very basic problem. Companies in crisis have to answer the core question: Why should their publics trust them? Eric Dezenhall of Nichols-Dezenhall Communications says, “In this digital age, news about business mishaps and misbehaviors travels at breakneck speed. But slamming the brakes on bad corporate karma requires more than just simple spin doctoring. It calls for calculated calm — and a delicate balance between the art of shepherding public opinion and the science of showing executive leadership.”
Leadership during crisis should be filled with honesty, sincerity and courage; honesty to take the necessary responsibility and sincerity to provide for the health and safety needs of people; and the courage to stand up and get to the root of the predicament.
Masters Of Disaster
Corporations propelled into the crisis spotlight face pressures ranging from negative media coverage to a struggle for survival. How should they respond? Experts generally agree on these positive actions:
• Respond within the first 24 hours. It’s the most critical time period that requires quick thinking and quick action. In 1991, McDonald’s took immediate action after learning that its sponsorship of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had been rigged. Instead of disaster, the fast-food chain hit a public relations jackpot by giving away another US$10 million.
• Face squarely the attendant accountability. Accept crisis as an inevitability and avoid making the effects of the crisis even more damaging through an unproductive response. Mitsubishi Motor Corp., in 2000, issued a public apology through its president following revelations that the carmaker had ignored safety complaints for 20 years.
• Re-institute integrity. Realize that your company is exposed not only to the particular pitfalls of its industry, but also to the universal and intricate challenges that intimidate all companies. With this understanding also comes the resolve to correct the wrongs and put your company back in shape. Following a 1996 crash in
• Do what you can do creatively. A crisis demands that you be capable of exercising on-the-spot, out-of-the box creative thinking. In the Tylenol tampering scare of 1982, Johnson & Johnson took three big steps quickly: it recalled its product, changed the packaging and reformulated the medicine to reduce tampering risks.
• Be tolerant. A crisis exacts tremendous emotional costs; as a result, it requires exceptional sensitivity and resiliency. When Jack in the Box promoted its Monster Burger in 1993, the slogan was “So good it’s scary.” And it was scary! E. coli outbreaks sickened hundreds and killed four. After settling with many of the victims, the hamburger chain counted on time to restore its reputation and has since avoided further E. coli outbreaks.
• Make it personal. After Chrysler’s 1980 federal bailout, chairman Lee Iacocca hit the TV airwaves, putting a real-life face on Chrysler’s comeback. His crusty can-do style proved as popular with consumers as its minivans.
On the other end, here’s a list of what the experts say companies must not do when implementing your crisis response plan:
• Show detachment. Your concern about the handling of the situation must be made truly evident. With the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, top executives failed to fly to the accident scene and said they couldn’t understand why the public was upset. The backlash hurt Exxon’s image for years.
• Be unavailable. Silence is the worst approach you can take after a mishap. You may also add avoidance of the families of the victims who are desperate for information, and hoping against hope about the fate of loved ones. Kenneth Lay and other top Enron executives have been silent about what went wrong and why. “Little children who do something wrong will go hide somewhere and pretend that it never happened,” said Chris Ryan, who owns his own crisis management firm. “There are a lot of little children running these corporations.”
• Use the inappropriate spokesperson. Letting lawyers do the talking is generally a bad idea since lawyers tended to be confrontational, or else speak in gobbledygook. US Postmaster General John Potter was a dud in media appearances following the anthrax scare, Ryan said. “He looked like he was uncomfortable and sounded like he didn’t think about what he was saying.”
• Move into the blame game. The crisis team must come together as a team. There is no room for pointing fingers and too much argumentation. In firing public salvos at each other, Ford and Firestone turned their damage control efforts into a mudslinging feud. It’s hard to say which company, if any, came out on top — both suffered in 2001.
• Hide under the covers. Face the music and dance with it. Firestone executives knew for at least two years that there were safety problems with its tires, but failed to act. By saving itself some inconveniences and costs in the short run, the tire-maker paid a heavy PR price in the long run.
• Fail to remember the lessons of the past. That is assuming that you have a sense of the past and the lessons it brings. Andersen’s
The lessons learned from these case histories speak of a universal application. The most basic lesson in crisis response planning being thrown at you is “to always do the right thing.” It is not only the socially and morally responsible thing to do, it is the best thing to do for the long-term success of your organization.
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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.
